Mirror City
by Chris Talonflight
Summary: In a city where information is constantly monitored, the Runners are the sole way to transport anything without the government getting their hands on it. but something has targeted the Runners, and only a new team of runners can deal with it...


Gray concrete pounded underneath my feet as I used a pile of boards as a spring and propelled myself up onto a rather large ventilation unit. I edged along the unit, the occasional wind ruffling my black t-shirt. I grimaced as I felt it flutter in the breeze; that last barbed wire fence had been hell to detangle myself with. My fingerless gloves were all right, and that was what counted, since I was constantly grabbing rusted and possibly sharp objects in my parkour maneuvers. I reached a smaller platform, possibly the top of a heating unit, and suddenly sprinted towards the wall. I turned at the last possible second, my feet pounding against the wall itself as I ran along the wall, aiming for an air conditioning unit on the wall, suspended seventy three stories above the surface of the City.

_ "Feral! You're being a bit too obvious. We've got cops en route, so keep your head down, finish the delivery and get out of there."_ My Operator spoke through the com-link taped to my cheek and ear. "_The police probably know you're in the building, but they may not check the roof."_ I muttered back something about his mother, and he retorted with a comment about my heritage. I sighed and finished my wall-run, my foot finishing by pushing off an air conditioning unit and rebounding towards the roof of the building near me. All the rooftops of the City were a myriad of annoying barricades and helpful devices, ranging from electrified fences and barbed wire to air conditioning units and ventilation shafts, as well as the occasional zip wire. Perfect place for the Parkour-traversing Runners, those of us who navigate the Edge of the city in order to conduct our illicit deliveries, the place where sky hits the tops of the scrapers, the border between the order of the city and the chaos of the sky. Both of us were used to our exchanges of insults during deliveries, and Wayne Brandon, my Operator, was no doubt worried sick about whether a team of cops would bust in on me at any second. His tap into the police radio network was tenuous, not as sophisticated as others, and less reliable. Therefore, his "may not know you're in the building" may have been a warning that there was a robbed hotdog stand a block away, or that there was a chopper on its way to attempt to skewer me with hot lead.

That was why he had made sure that I carry a sidearm on this Op, nearly a travesty among those of us who called the Edge our home. Actually, I had ditched it first chance. It may not have slowed me down much, but I was proficient enough in the universal fighting style of the Runner's to defend myself if need be.

In the distance I saw another runner, a blonde woman in a red sleeveless shirt and black sprinter's pants. Gale; a runner working for a man named Splicer. I didn't know much about Splicer, nor did I care. But I had worked with Gale on a number of deliveries and operations, and I was glad to see her again.

_ "Did you bring it?"_ Wayne, also known as W.B., asked me via our com-link. _"As long as you get it there without dropping it…"_

I double checked the small paper bag that was tucked into my belt. I didn't know what was in it; I didn't really care. All I needed was the sky… the sky, and my friends.

Gale dropped from a raised platform onto the rooftop where I was currently standing, allowing my precious momentum to bleed off as I came to a standing stop. Gale did the same, coming to a full stop a foot away from me, her crimson eyes boring into my own purple ones. I never knew whether her eyes were contacts, natural, or the result of an expensive operation. Only God knew if my purple eyes were from the ER or from birth; waking up one day with your whole life a blur beside the memory of the sky tends to do that to you. Maybe I had lost it in a bad fall from my Running. I never knew, and to be honest… I didn't know if I cared.

I walked up to Gale, allowing a smile to grace my sharp features. Her lips curved into a smirk in response, and her eyes lowered and raised again, quite purposefully a message telling me that yes, she WAS checking me out. I sighed, looked away, my face heating, and pulled out the brown paper bag. Gale took it from my hands, but with the finger of her free hand she traced up my arm up to my neck, and then down to chest.

"You're still skinny, Feral." Gale snickered. "But you _have_ been working out."

"You know me; I'm always looking for new steroids." I smirked right back at her; inside joke, since I was six feet tall and slim like a stick, despite my strength. "About what you said last time…"  
>"Thirty Eighth and Lehigh Avenue, ten tonight." She interrupted me. "I'll bring dinner. You bring protection." She smirked and I felt my own smile threaten to turn into a more physical reaction.<p>

_"If you two are done flirting, I've got a definite sighting on a pair of Blue Van's incoming. You've got time to leave before they get there, but I suggest you get moving STAT." _WB spoke urgently into my ear piece.

"Catch you later?" I said. "I'll make sure their not latex; you said you're allergic." I smiled. In response, Gale ran a finger down my cheek and let out an enticing growl. Then she suddenly turned and started sprinting towards the end of the roof at the same time that WB's voice exploded into my left ear.

_ "RUN!"_

I leaped over the fence, pushing off with my feet as I neared the ground again and bounding up onto the top of a ventilator. Running along the top of the ventilation shaft, I raced above the roof of the building, quickly catching up with the single blonde braid that always bobbed just out of my reach.

Gale hurled herself forwards through air and over the edge of the roof. As she went into freefall, her hand snatched out, and closed around a large red pipe running up the side of the building. She climbed up the pipe rather quickly.

Behind us, I heard the rapid footsteps of the S.W.A.T. team as they hurtled up the stairs leading up to the roofs of the skyscrapers. Even though my abilities as a Runner allowed me speed and agility far beyond the norm, I knew it was always only a matter of time before I was shot at again. As if to confirm my thoughts, the roof access door burst open, and a black suited man stepped out, his assault rifle swinging up towards me-

-Everything seemed to hit slow motion. Adrenaline coursing through my veins caused my brain to register and react nearly instantaneously of each other.

The man that was swinging his barrel towards me was grabbed by the scruff of his neck and slammed into my upraised knee. My other hand pushed the barrel of the gun upwards and yanked it from his grasp. I then shoved him sideways with the hand that was grabbing his neck. The SWAT man stumbled through the air and fell from the top of the building. Fell all 73 stories to the ground. Splat.

I spun with my newly acquired assault rifle and emptied the clip into the open doorway. Muzzle flash allowed me to glimpse SWAT team members going down under the fully automatic rate of fire while ordinary cops who were hanging back tried to back up out of the line of fire. When the gun stopped spitting lead slugs, I tossed it and ran across the roof.

Gale was gone, and with her the package. The delivery was made. Now I just had to escape in one piece.

As I sprinted back towards the pipe that Gale had used to climb up the side of the next building, I heard about the worst noise ever; the one noise which every Runner has learned to fear: the sound of a SWAT assault helicopter.

"WB!" I said through gritted teeth. "There's a team of Black's and a bird converging on my position! Why the hell are they going full force for a single Runner?"

_"I don't know."_ WB's voice was tense. _"Stay out of the open. Use the Running lines. There should be a safe house-"_

I didn't hear the rest of his words because a hand grabbed my wrist and hauled me over the edge of the roof. My mouth opened and I saw Gale's grim face. She pushed me behind her.

"Gale, what the hell are you doing?" I yelled. "You've got the package! You've got to get away from here!"

"Leaving another runner to burn isn't my style." She started across the rooftop, only to flinch back as concrete chips flew up around her. The chopper wasn't taking any chances on us escaping, and I could hear sirens from ground level that intimated that more SWAT were on their way up.

"Stat?" I asked WB. I heard the sound of typing in his computer and knew he was accessing security cameras.

_"Zip wire one hundred thirty five feet west. Crash mat nearby, but it will take you guys down two stories. There's also an over-roof route that will take you out of the area, but that isn't a good idea with the bird up there… use you own discretion, Feral."_

I turned to Gale to ask her opinion, but then a trio of SWAT grappled down from the chopper. Gale and I winced in unison; Runner's COULD fight, sure, but speed and escaping were our real specialties.

_"Incoming Blacks, Feral." _WB said, unnecessarily; I could see them from where I was. _"Looks like you're going to have to fight."_

I sighed and turned to the unit we were hiding underneath. I leaped on top of it, and crouched to avoid the chopper fire. Even that was only instinct rather then necessity; the chopper wouldn't fire with its own men so close to the targets.

To the right of our location was an office building with a slanted roof. It was giving me ideas, but none I could enact with the SWAT members closing on Gale and me. So, the SWAT had to go.

I heard a loud exclamation as Gale grabbed a member who was slightly farther away from the others; typical Runner combat involved splitting up your opponents into one on one fights. While the two members who were close together turned to look for their comrade, I leaped from the unit above them and smashed in the visor on one of the SWAT, then turned his gun on the other member, who was a little slow on the uptake. By the time he thought to attack me, his partner's assault rifle was in my hands and in his face, spitting lead. Three down.

Gale joined me and I pointed to the slanting rooftop. She nodded, and we made a sprinting dash for it. The chopper, for some reason, still didn't fire. _Why wasn't the bird firing?_

We threw ourselves to the ground as we hit the slanted roof, sliding down it as fast as we could, picking up speed. We neared the edge of the rooftop. We coiled our legs under us and prepared to spring across the gap to the next roof. On the next roof was the zip wire that WB had pointed out, which would send us onto the roof of a Mall building. From that roof we could enter the mall, steal some non-runner clothing and lose ourselves into the crowd, returning to the roofs and the Edge after the chopper was called off.

But as we jumped, a single shot rang out, I heard a scream, and saw a spray of crimson erupt from Gale's leg. Her jump turned into a plummeting fall.

Seventy three stories.

I think I screamed, but I was already jumping across when it happened. I forgot to roll when I landed and felt pain race up my leg as my ankle took my fall without any shock absorbed. I ran to the edge of the building, but I couldn't make out her form from so high up.

Gale was gone. Dead.

What I DID make out was a small red dot tracing over the rooftop towards me.

_Sniper. _But again, he wasn't firing on me. I realized that behind me was a pair of SWAT team members, guns aimed at my head.

"Cuff him, Jerry." One of them said. The second one, Jerry, I supposed, walked towards me. He gave me a little push, and I stumbled towards the SWAT member that had given the order. This put Jerry in between the sniper and me.

"Hmph. He's a skinny punk kid." SWAT commander said. "Not even worth the bust." His pistol started rising towards me. "Maybe we should just finish it here…"

I snatched the pistol from his grasp and grabbed the man's arm with my free hand. I deftly threw him over my shoulder, his head making a 'crack' noise when it hit the ground. His partner started to drop the cuffs and draw his gun, but I already had one out, and I plugged him in the head.

I saw the red dot reappear and start to move towards me, so I fled. I leaped into the air and caught the zip wire to the mall, my hands starting to heat even through my fingerless gloves as I sped down the wire. I hit the ground, rolled perfectly, and barged through the roof access door and ran down the stairs, hopping the railing as I neared the part of the mall with actual customers. I darted into the crowd, and entered a clothing store, totally ignoring the brand. I picked up a random black shirt and a pair of blue jeans and had the cashier ring them up at the counter, avoiding the looks of the employee's. I practically threw the cash on the counter and left with my clothes. I entered a nearby restroom, and quickly stripped off the Runner's outfit I was so at home in, instead pulling on the black long-sleeved short with the words _Lue e Tenebris_ on it, and pulled on the blue jeans with the ripped knees. Washing my face and hands with water, removing the traces of the dust from my many trips over the city that day. I stared in the mirror at what now appeared to be an inner-city punk who had decided to steal his daddy's credit card. Except for the black claw that snaked up from my neck, racing across my cheek and over my eye, ending in a single spike just above my eyebrow; my Runner's sigil, the Feral Claw. I flipped my hood onto my head to conceal the earpiece and tiny Mic I was carrying taped to my headband. Walking out of the restroom, I lost myself in the crowd.

Hours later, I stood on the rooftops, back on the Edge, where the city stopped and the sky began. Back in my home, returned to the sky. I looked at a building in the distance, an office building with a slanted rooftop, with another building next to it that had a zip wire running to a mall. I sighed, and buried my hands in my head. I turned my back, possibly the hardest thing I had ever done, and started to move. Vaulting over a fence, balancing on a beam, wall-running over a gap, jumping to another building, climbing up.

I was cursing and crying, but I was running. My friend was dead, and I had failed my mission, but as long as I had the Edge, the sky, I was free.


End file.
